The Indian government has changed its stance on cryptocurrencies over the past few years, but an economic group is demanding a ban on private digital assets with exceptions being made.
What happened: Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) — an economic and cultural organization — welcomed a resolution seeking the ban on cryptocurrencies in India while also creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to support the exploration of blockchain technology and to be considered as a legal tender, according to a Coindesk report.
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According to some political analysts, the resolution won’t have much influence on the government’s policies although SJM, which is anti-foreign direct investment (FDI), is one of the founders of the Reserve Bank of India. In addition, SJM is considered the financial associate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization, although its influence over the RSS may be limited, according to analysts.
One political analyst, Shivam Shankar Singh said, “[The] SJM has in the past raised several issues on which BJP [one of the two major political parties in India] has gone in the diametrically opposite direction.”
He added that “From FDI to the sell-off of PSUs [public sector units], SJM has voiced opposition to many such governmental policies, and yet their perspective has been ignored by BJP. It’s unclear if a call by SJM for the banning of cryptocurrencies will have any effect at all on governmental policy.” Shivam is the author of “How to Win an Indian Election.”
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